Bennington Lake today

The weather was a mixed bag this morning – sun, then thunder and lightning, a little hail, a little rain, and then more sun.  The wind came roaring through with the storm, but that only lasted about ten minutes and the rest of the walk was pleasant.  We saw our first western wood peewee of the season, plus eastern and western kingbirds, Bullock's orioles, black-headed grosbeaks, yellow warblers, house wrens and more.  There were at least two very noisy gray catbirds, but they did a good job of hiding from us.  Along the canal we found an adult canada goose with four goslings.  The goslings were almost as big as the adult so we missed them earlier.  Two noisy osprey circled the lake continuously and were joined by northern rough-winged, cliff and tree swallows.  A pair of spotted sandpipers and two Vaux's swifts added to the mix.  It was nice to have all the birds singing, and even nicer to not have wind for the first time in weeks!  Ginger